Calm After the Storm
by Cecilia Kapnula
Summary: Glitch is sent to the Other Side through a rogue Travel Storm. No one knows where, exactly, he is sent to, and neither does he. In his adventures, he meets new friends and discovers what he knew before he lost his marbles.
1. On the Horizon

The Tin Man series and all characters withal belong to the marvelous people at SciFi . . . and not me. :(

"Glitch?" DG roamed the castle searching for her half-brained friend. He was supposed to be in preparation for his surgery today. When she had checked his room, Glitch wasn't there. In fact, he hadn't been in any of his favorite spots. After searching for an hour, DG had asked Cain to help find the Queen's old advisor.

"Princess!" Cain walked down the hall towards DG, who stopped and grimaced internally. She hated to be called princess. It sounded too . . . girly. She let it go anyway, and listened to what he had to say, "I can't find Glitch anywhere in the castle or grounds." DG sighed; he must have run off from fear.

"Any ideas where he might have gone, Mr Cain?"

Glitch wandered around an open field just outside the palace boundaries, marveling at the soft glow of the sunset. Just a moment ago he had been terribly worried about . . . well, something or other. He couldn't quite remember anymore. There was this nagging feeling that he wasn't in the place he should have been. Also, the Queen had said something . . . there was a bug in some thing that . . . and the traveling . . . it was long gone before Glitch could remember why he had been in to see the Queen in the first place.

At that same moment, the Queen was in conference with some of her recovered advisors. They were having problems trying to shut down the Travel Storms. Recently, they had become erratic and led to any place on the Other Side.

"Until we have Ambrose back, I don't know how we can fully shut them down," she said for the tenth time that day, "He was the only one who really knew how to operate the system, and any others who might have had knowledge have been dead for many years." She was losing hope for her old friend; the still hadn't found where he had gone.

The Queen dismissed her advisors and sat near the window, absentmindedly following the rogue travel storm in the distant field. There had been a lot of those recently, especially with the virus going around the systems. In fact, every system in the O.Z. had been experience the same sort of glitches recently. At least they had been able to isolate the travel storms, and they had posted notices around Central City that the field was officially banned from public use. So why was she so anxious today?

"Mother!" DG burst into the room. The Queen smiled at her youngest daughter, but it was quickly replaced by a replica of DG's expression.

"What's wrong?" Quickly, DG explained that Glitch was in the field where they had isolated the Travel Storms. As they walked down the hall, the Queen spotted Cain and had him take a handful of Tin Men to the field. They were to retrieve Ambrose ("Glitch, mother," DG sighed) as quickly as possible, so he would not be lost in the storm.

Glitch walked along, rather bouncily, until he noticed a strong wind coming from behind him. He turned and gaped in horror at the oncoming Travel Storm. Now he remembered why he wasn't supposed to be there. If only he had his old memory . . . that also just occurred to him. He was going to get his brain back today. For a moment Glitch danced a little happy jig before remembering that he was about to get transported to some place on the Other Side.

"Glitch!" DG yelled, running towards her friend. He turned, exasperated, and stared at his friend. The last thing DG saw before he vanished into the storm was his vacant, pleasant smile.


	2. The New Land

Glitch and Tin Man-related characters belong to SciFi

Cassie inched down the stairs. Ever since last night's storm, she had been eager to ride out to the farthest reaches of the farm and find what it had dropped. Tornadoes were rare in Montana, especially so close to the mountains. As quietly as she could, she slipped on her work boots and leather jacket. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a low ponytail which reached her mid-back. Bridle in hand, she was just about to walk out the door when —

"Cassie, what the hell are you doing?" She jumped — violently — and turned to face her brother. He was standing at the doorway between the kitchen and hall. Apparently she wasn't as quiet as she had hoped; he was still in pajamas, his brown hair sticking up like he had just been groomed by the cow. Despite having just woke up, Jessie was extremely alert, arms crossed and everything.

"I was just going to take Crystal out and . . . see if the fence got damaged," she said, wishing he would buy it. Jessie raised an eyebrow in response, but stood completely still otherwise.

"I know what you're up to, sis," he replied, "And I think for twenty-three you're way too curious and . . . I don't know, kid-like!" If Cassie didn't stop him soon, he was going to go on one of his rants about helping Dad around the house and not taking responsibility and living on a ranch her whole life, blah, blah, blah.

"Look, Jessie, I'll be careful, okay?" Cassie didn't wait for an answer. She turned and walked out the screen door and to the stables, leaving her brother scowling after her. It wasn't like she hadn't been to the farthest corners of the fenced-in land before. She supposed, though, that he was right. Lately she had become more of a child, often skipping out on her chores and spending that time in the fields with the horses. Something had been . . . off . . . but she couldn't place what it was.

"Hey there, girl." Crystal whinnied and poked her head out of the stall. Cassie had brought a large carrot for her favorite horse. "We're going pretty far out today, okay? I think something got dropped in the tornado that disappeared out there last night."

Riding was the closest thing to complete bliss Cassie had ever gotten to. There was such a romantic atmosphere around it, the way the wind would catch the ends of her hair, the steady rhythm of galloping across an open field, the warm chill of the late autumn sun on her cheek; it was times like this when she really forgot everything and became an entirely new person. There was plenty of broken pieces of beams scattered around, including some in a green-ish tint that Cassie didn't recognize.

Suddenly Crystal reared, throwing Cassie off, and started rushing back to the house. It was a first: the horse had never reacted so violently to anything before. Just as she was wondering what had spooked her mount, Cassie realized that she had landed on top of someone. She jumped up in horror, thinking that whoever was beneath her was dead. For nearly half a minute Cassie stood there, convinced that the crumpled figure in the grass was a corpse. She believed this even after she noticed that they were breathing. It was only when the person tried to stand up that she shook herself out of her daze and came to her senses.

"Are you okay?" she asked, not even sure if they had heard her. "My house isn't too far off, I can take you back there and get you some help." Cassie's eyes widened and she gasped when she the newly awakened figure turned to face her. He looked so odd, but so helpless. His dark hair was disheveled, and his clothing was ripped in many places. Wait . . . what was that on his head? It caught the sun as if it were made of some metal. He wore a perplexed expression, as if he didn't know what had happened to him. Shaking herself, Cassie spoke up, "My name's Cassie. Who are you?"

"Me? Oh . . . um, that's a little difficult for me to remember," he said. Amnesia would definitely make this more difficult. "But, people call me Glitch. Whoa." He had just seen the mountain range beyond, and stared at it dumbfounded. "Where am I?"

"On the outskirts of Big Sky country," Cassie said, "Don't you come from around here? We don't get tornadoes all that often around here, so it must have been something new for you." She didn't think he was listening, because he stared at her and then smiled. Cassie couldn't help but smile back, he seemed so . . . distant. "Where are you from, Glitch? And why is that your name?"

"Why is what my name?" he said, "Wait, what's my name? From? I'm from the O.Z. of course! Where else would I be from?" He laughed and then began walking away from Cassie.

"Wait!" she called. Glitch turned, surprised at being so suddenly yelled at. "I'll take you back to my house, and I can get you some help. We can call someone and have them pick you up." Truthfully, Cassie believed he was an escapee from a loony bin. She took a few steps back as he came running back, wide-eyed, and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"I remember now!" he practically yelled. Cassie was thinking of a way to get out of the situation while he continued, "I was supposed to get my brain back, but there was a Travel Storm that went wrong and I ended up here and . . . " he broke off, eyes glossing over, as if he just lost his train of thought, "Hi, I'm Glitch. What's your name?"

Cassie didn't like being made fun of, which is what she believed this man was trying to do. He started walking away, and she noticed that the metal on his head was actually a zipper. A zipper?!? "What's with your head?" she asked, expecting some nonsense.

"That?" he said, "Oh, a while back Azkadelia had my brain removed, and I was going to have a surgery to get it back yesterday." Glitch nodded, surprised that this girl did not understand what he meant.

"How is that even possible? People can't live without their brains, can they?" Glitch started to respond, but then forgot what the question was, so he merely smiled as she continued, "Anyway, my house isn't too far from here. I'll take you there and get you some food and medicine."

With Crystal having run back to the stables, Cassie had to walk with Glitch to the house. Surely it would take an hour to get back, at the least. Her train of thought rode down that track until she saw Jessie coming with two horses.

"Jessie!" Cassie grabbed Glitch's sleeve and dragged him towards her brother. "This guy, Glitch, was out here. I think he got dropped in the storm; he seems really out of it." As if to prove her point, Glitch smiled and waved at Jessie. Cassie pointed at him and made circles around her ear, a motion the former advisor missed.

"Okay, he can ride with one of us back to the house," Jessie said, "but then we call whoever he's with and get them to pick him up." He was irritated as he turned his horse, waiting for Cassie to mount Crystal. To the siblings' surprise, Glitch mounted behind Cassie with great ease.

Glitch was just starting to get used to his new surroundings, wondering if this is the place that DG had come from. Now that he thought more of the O.Z., the more he began to wonder what was going on without him there. Goodness knows that without him to use his brain . . . his brain! He needed to get that back soon, or who could predict how many more disasters would occur there?


End file.
